Ct 



E 595 
.L5 C8 
Copy 1 




IV. Cruise of the Monii 

Cowley. Read J^ovenibev 12, 1879. 



mm 



m 
MS 



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The success of the Monitor in her battle with the 
Confederate Ram Merrimack (or Virginia) induced the 
Federal Navy Department to contract at once for the 
building of nine iron-clads of the Monitor pattern, re- 
sembling, according to the homely description of one 
who witnessed the combat in Hampton Roads, " a cheese- 
box on a raft." One of these was the Lehigh, built at 
Chester, Pennsylvania, and costing four hundred tliousand 
dollars. The burden of the Lehigh was about eighteen 
hundred tons, and a description of her will answer, sub- 
stantially, for each of the other iron-clads of this class. 

She was about two hundred and fourteen feet in 
length over all, forty-five feet in beam and fourteen feet 
deep. She drew, when in fighting trim, eleven feet of 
water. The turret, which contained one fifteen-inch 
and one eleven-inch Dahlgren gun, was twenty feet in 
diameter. She carried twelve steam engines, two to 
propel the ship, two for the turret, and eight for various 
other purposes. 

The cruise of the Lehigh began April 15, 1863, and 
ended with the close of the war. 

Her commanders were John C. Howell, now a rear 
admiral in command of the Earopean squadron ; Andrew 
Bryson, now also a rear admiral in command of the 



.LrC'S 



t2 



OI^D RESIDEKTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 



Brooklyn Navy Yard ; Francis M. Bunce ; William Gib- 
son, the poet ; Andrew J. Johnson and A. A. Semmes. 

Her first duty was in the Chickahomin}^ River, 
where, with the Monitor Sangamon, she co-operated witli 
the Army of the Potomac under General McClellan. 
For some time she carried the flag of Bear Admiral Lee. 
At the close of McClellan's campaign, in July, 1863, she 
was sent to New York, where a branch rebellion was 
then imminent. 

She left New York again on August 25th for the 
South Atlantic squadron. The passage of Cape Hatteras, 
which proved fatal to the original Monitor, came near 
proving fatal to the Lehigh. It was only by the greatest 
care and vigilance that she was prevented from laying 
her bones with the bones of hundreds of ill-fated barks 
over which the light of Cape Hatteras revolves forever. 
She passed Cape Hatteras Light on tlie night of the 
27th and 28th of August, but no one on board saw that 
light. The sea broke over her decks without intermis- 
sion during successive watches. It lifted and carried 
away her bell. There was one period of about an hour 
and a half, during which the deck could not be seen at 
all — the sea rolling over it, often as high as the turret. 
Captain Bryson expected every moment to go down. 

She arrived oE Charleston on the oOth of August, 
spent one day in " coaling ship," and on the two follow- 
ing days engaged, with other Monitors, in bombarding 
Fort Sumter, passing at once from the perils of the sea 
to the perils of battle. 

Fort Wagner, which the Federal army had twice 
vainl}- attempted to capture by storm, was now almost 
within our grasp, having undergone one of the heaviest 
and most protracted bombardments recorded in history. 

The capture of this famous fortification was finally 



CRFISE OF THE MONITOR LEHIGH. 63 



consummated by the aid of the " Grant" electric light, 
the use of which was suggested by John Austin Stevens, 
the editor of the Magazine of American History.* Be- 




TDK LEHIGH BOMBAKDIXO BATTEKT -n-AGNER. 



ing brought to bear upon this battery, this light made it 
impossible for the Confederates to repair during the 
night (as they had previously done), the damages sus- 
tained during the day, and also enabled our army and 
navy to operate effectively, continuously, bv night as 
well as by day. 

On the 5th and 6th of September, the Lehigh and 
the Monitor Weehawken took a position, and maintained 
it, between two fires, having the Cummings Point 
Batteries, Wagner and Gregg, on the south, and Fort 
Sumter on the north, and being also exposed at the same 
time to the lire of more distant batteries on James Island 
and on Sullivan Island. By firmly holding this position, 
these vessels made it impossible for General Beaureo-ard 
to send any further re-enforcements to Morris Island. 
The next night General Taliaferro evacuated that island, 
and General Terry, who was to have led a third assault 
on Wagner the next morning, entered that famous 
battery without a shot. 



*See Mr. Stevens' kindly review of my " Leaves from a Lawyer's Life .Vtloat and 
Ashore," in his Magazine for June, 18«0. 



64 



OLD RESIDENTS HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 



That night her consort, the Weehawken, accidentally 
got aground near Fort Sumter, and the Confederate 
artillerists, sighting their guns with the greatest preci- 
sion of aim, poured upon her a most destructive fire. 
The Lehigh, meanwhile, with other vessels from below, 
used every effort to divert the iire of the Confederates 
from her disabled consort, and finnlly pulled her off into 
deeper water. The Weehawken, even while aground, 
returned tlie lire of the Confederate batteries witli great 
vigor and effect. One shell which she then threw into 
Fort Moultrie, created more wide-spread havoc than 
any other single shot, so far as is known, that was fired 
during the siege of Charleston. It dismantled and broke 
the muzzle of an eight-inch Columbiad, then glanced off 
and exploded behind a mulin. This exploded two 
caissons, one containing cartridges for the cannon, the 
other shell. The bursting of these shells exploded 
several other ammunition chests, and the havoc was 
general. Eighteen men were killed, and ten wounded. 
Captain R. Press Smith, who commanded the company 
serving these guns, was compelled to leap over the 
parapet into the ditch, in order to save his own life.* 

But great as were the losses then inflicted upon the 
Confederates by the Weehawken. they wholly failed to 
compensate for the injuries which she herself sustained 
in consequence of getting aground on that disastrous 
night : for I have no doubt that it was the overstrain 
which she suffered while thus lying aground, and keep- 
ing her battery going at the ."^ame time, which, two 



•By the kiiuliR'ss i)f my Irn ml. Mr. Vatt-s Simwden, ol ("harlestoii. S. C. since thi.'s 
paper was read, 1 liave been fiiinislied witli letters from Captain Smitli (now practisinp; 
tnedlcine at Santa Rosa. CaliforniaV Major T. A. Ilu^^nenin, who then eommanded 
Battery Beaureijard, and Lieutenant .T. C. Minott, who then eommanded Battery Marion, 
which enable me to add here several partienlars previously unknowu to me. and, also, to 
correct an error into which I had fallen as to the date. 



CRITISE OF THE MONITOR LEniGH. 65 

months later, carried her suddenly to the bottom, with 
more than thirty of her crew. 

On September 8, 1863, a picked body of three 
hundred sailors and marines, assaulted Fort Sumter. 
During the whole night the Lehigh lay near the Fort, 
covering with her guns the storming party. The garri- 
son, however, had been strongly re-enforced in anticipa- 
tion of this attack ; the army column, which was to have 
cooperated with the navy column, failed to come up to 
our support, and the assault proved disastrous.* 

I am aware that Mr. Greeley and Mr. Lossing, 
writing under the inspiration of General Gillmore, have 
said that this assault was made witliout the knowledge 
of that officer and without any expectation of coopera- 
tion from his army ; but this is untrue. I myself saw 
and read the original despatches and telegrams from the 
General to the Admiral, arranging for a joint assault, 
and General Gillmore himself suggested the countersign, 
"Detroit," which was used by both branches of the 
service on that night. Not the slightest hint of any 
change of purpose on Gillmore's ^^^rt was received by 
the Admiral ; but the army column remained in boats 
in the rear, while the navy column climbed the walls of 
Sumter unaided, but climbed them only to be captured 
or killed. 

The assault of the arm}^ column could not have suc- 
ceeded, had it been made as planned. For its success 
depended on taking the enemy by surprise. But the 
Confederates became apprised of what was coming, by 



•Colonel Charles H. Olinstcad, of the First Georgia Infantry, who was stationed on 
James Island at the time, says: "The land forces, about four hundred strong, em- 
barlicd in their boats in Vincent's Creek. The windings of the creek (between Morris 
and James Island) probably delayed them, and they had not (luite reached the fort 
when the naval assault was made and repulsed. All hope of a surprise being at an end, 
the second force retired." 



66 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 



interpreting the signals which passed between the Ad- 
miral and the General in relation to the proposed assault 
during the preceding day. They were thus enabled to 
obtain re-enforceinents, and to prepare thoroughly for 
the attack. 

So, by the help of their knowledge of the mysteries 
of our signal code, they interpreted the signals which 
the Admiral and the General exchanged, prior to the 
terrible assault on Wagner, in the preceding July. Had 
the Federal commanders suspected that the Confederates 
knew the key to this code, the entire code would have 
been reconstructed at once. But no suspicion of this 
arose until after this assault. 

The Confederates learned the key to all our signals 
early in the war. A Federal officer w\as captured near 
Georgetown, S. C, who had this code with him ; but he 
firmly refused to reveal its precious treasures. The 
book was handed back to him with the remark, " Well, 
you may keep it; we can't read it; so it is of no use 
to us." By this conduct the fears of their prisoner, if 
he had any, were allayed. An adroit Confederate, 
dressed in the Federal uniform, was then shut up in the 
same apartment as a fellow prisoner-of-war. While thus 
confined, he won the confidence of his " chum," who 
finally taught him how to interpret the code. 

During the night of September 8th, the Lehigh 
engaged Battery Bee at close range, and silenced her 
guns, but received more than thirty shots herself, and 
lost her flagstaff, jack-staff and cutter. 

On November 16tli, the Lehigh got aground between 
Cummings Point and Fort Sumter. Listantly a furious 
fire was opened upon her by the Confederates from the 
Sullivan Island batteries. Several of her officers and 
crew were wounded — three badly. Admiral Dahlgren 



CRUISE OF THE MONTTOK LEHIGH. 67 



promptly ordered all the other monitors and the New 
Ironsides* to her assistance, and they did good service 
by diverting a part of the fire from the Lehigh to them- 
selves. Captain Simpson, now a commodore in command 
of the naval station at New London, went into the fight 
with the smoke-stack of his ship (the monitor Passaic) 
shot through, and Avith her turret and pilot-house revolv- 
ing together. The Patapsco's smoke-stack was also shot 
through. She was then under command of Captain 
Thomas H. Stephens, recently made a rear admiral. Dr. 
Longshaw, the surgeon of the Lehigh, with three men, 
volunteered to carry a hawser to the Nahant, a most 
daring feat, for which he and the men obtained promo- 
tion ; but it proved useless, for the hawser was cut by 
Confederate shot and shell before it could be used. Dr. 
Longshaw belonged to Cambridge, Mass. He was after- 
wards killed at Fort Fisher. 

Admiral Dahlgren's private journal, which has not 
yet been published, contains the following entry for 
November 16, 1863: 

"Monday, November 16th. Superb Aveather. Wind 
northwest — clear and cool — bar. 30.00. Last night, 
about 9 or 10, the Confederates very unexpectedly 
opened a rapid fire from their batteries on Sullivan 
Island upon our works on Cummings Point. The 
General telegraphed me to prevent their landing in 
boats, so I sent orders accordingly to the monitors on 
picket. 

" This morning, at daylight, the Lehigh was reported 
aground and the Confederates pummelling her. So I 
signalled the iron-clads to go up and relieve the Lehigh. 



*See Captain Belknap's article on the New Ironsides off Charleston, in the first 
number of yie United Service. 



68 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 



I went up myself in the Passaic, and finding the Nahant 
close in, passed to her in my barge. The tide was rising, 
and the Nahant could approach so as to get a hawser 
aboard the Lehigh. 

'• The scene was of great interest. Three times the 
hawser parted — once shot away. The line carrying it 
was twice sent to the Lehigh by the surgeon, in a little 
boat, and once by two seamen. Every effort seemed 
vain for the whole morning, under a perfect storm of 
shot and shell from cannon and mortars, under which 
the men worked well. 

•' At last I ordered the Nahant's propeller to be 
started, the Lehigh backed, and the Montauk ahead of us. 
It was the moment of high water, and, most fortunately, 
the Lehigh yielded and backed otf. Even then the 
hawser began to give way. Seven men were wounded 
by pieces of mortar shell. At one time, I ordered the 
Passaic and Montauk to reply to the batteries, which 
they did with effect, striking every time and dismount- 
ing a gun. The scene was quite a change. I noticed 
that the shore batteries, for whom we had got into 
trouble, gave us no help." 

While the Lehigh lay aground on this occasion, ex- 
posed to instant destruction by the Confederates, Admiral 
Dahlgren gave a signal proof of his extraordinary per- 
sonal bravery. Not conteijt with signalling to Captain 
Bryson to hold on to the ship to the direst extremity, 
and sending all the others to share her peril and save 
her from her impending fate, the Admiral boldly exposed 
his own life by pushing off in his barge from the flag- 
ship, pulling through a heavy sea, and personally board- 
ing the monitors, while still under a heavy fire. Reck- 
less of personal danger, tlie Admiral resolved to save the 



CRUISE OF THE MONITOR LEHIGH. 69 



ship, at all hazards, if she could be saved, and if she 
could not be got off, then to put a match to her magazine, 

'• And give her to the god of storms, 
The lightning and the gale." 

At length, the tide rising, the Lehigh got safely off. 
Althouo-h the Admiral was endowed with extraordinary 
physical intrepidity, and delighted to recognize and 
reward any exhibition of it among his officers and men, 
he never referred to it as a quality of which he was 
specially proud. 

There are two kinds of courage. There is natural 
courage which men share with the lower animals : that 
can be hired for twelve dollars a month, with rations and 
clothing. It is an indispensable trait, but it is not the 
greatest. It is inferior to professional courage, which is 
the result of culture and calculation. For example : 
To push off from a ship during an engagement, and pull 
over to another in an open boat, and go on board that 
other when she too is engaged, (as Admiral Dahlgren 
used to do), seems a most daring adventure ; and such 
indeed it is. But the professional sailor knows that 
while he is pulling about in a boat away from the 
vessels engaged, the danger is rather less than it is on 
board of those vessels, because the boat presents a 
smaller target to the enemy's artillery. Both natural 
and professional courage are necessary, and Admiral 
Dahlgren had both. 

Once, when the Admiral, the Fleet Captain, and I, 
were going from one ship to another during one of the 
many artillery duels at Charleston, shell after shell from 
Moultrie exploded so near to the barge that conveyed 
us, that, though no fragment struck us, we were repeat- 
edly splashed, and once almost deluged with water. I 



70 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 



remarked : " Admiral, Moultrie has trained her guns on 
your flag," (alluding to the broad, blue pennant which 
was then the ensign of his rank, and which was flying 
from the barge's bow). " That can hardly be," the 
Admiral replied. ''In an operation like this, the great 
point is to get a broad target. The Monitors are small 
targets compared with the old-fashioned frigates ; but 
the}^ are so much larger than my barge, the rebels are 
not likely to train their guns on my flag, though they 
sometimes do, and perhaps they are doing it now." All 
this was said as cooll}'^ as if he had been sitting at his 
own cabin table, instead of under the fire of half a dozen 
belching batteries. 

The Lehigh was once visited by a French Admiral 
who dropped anchor oft" Charleston with a French cor- 
vette, while Commodore (now Vice- Admiral) Roan was 
in command ad interim. It was desirable to treat the 
Frencliman politel}" ; but as our relations with Napoleon 
the Third were precarious, it was not deemed advisable 
to show him the interior structure of the Monitors. Just 
as the Frenchman was coming on board the Lehigh, the 
Commodore, with that grim humor which is one of his 
best-known characteristics, suggested to Captain Bryson, 
'• You can appear to show him a great deal and yet not 
show him much of any thing. A wink is as good as a 
nod to a blind horse." Captain Bryson governed him- 
self accordingl}'. His demon.strativeness was astonish- 
ing, but the Frenchman left but little wiser than when he 
came. 

The Lehigh did her full share of picket duty, the 
most irksome duty incident to the war — save only the 
gathering up of the wreck of battle and the burial of the 
dead. On December 6, 1863, she had the misfortune to 
see her consort, the Weehawken, go down off Morris 



CRUISE OK THK MONITOR LKHIGH. 71 



Island, as before mentioned. On February 17, 181)4, 
another of her consorts, the Housatonic, was blown up 
and suddenly sent to the bottom by a Confederate 
torpedo, carrying down with her several of her crew. 
A few months later (January 15, 1865) still another of 
her consorts, the Monitor Patapsco was blown up and 
instantly sunk near Fort Sumter by another torpedo, 
carrying down, as food for the fishes, eight of her officers 
and fifty-four of her men. 

The Lehigh was sent, once in 1864, and again in 
1865, into the Stono River, where she engaged the Con- 
federate batteries which guarded the approach to 
Charleston on that line. One of these bombardments 
lasted eight days successively. A Confederate " David " 
was sent down the Stono expressly to blow her up, and 
the Pawnee with her, if possible ; but she escaped. 
Many other dangers were encountered and many other 
services performed by the Lehigh, in' addition to the 
usual picket duty at Charleston, which it would be tedious 
to record at length here. The facts already related will 
suffice to indicate something of the life of all the iron- 
clad blockaders off Charleston. 

The interior life of these blockaders corresponded 
with that on board of other naval vessels, except that 
our quarters were closer, the air fouler, and the service 
far more exhausting generally. Though the officers of 
the vessel came from every quarter of the globe, the ser- 
vice soon became painfully monotonous. Among my 
companions on board the Lehigh were Captain Bryson, 
who chased the Confederate steamer Sumter under the 
walls of Gibraltar; Lieutenant Forrest, who was execu- 
tive officer of the Keokuk in the attack which Admiral 
Dupont made upon Fort Sumter, and who narrowly 
escaped going down with her when she sunk, on the 



72 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

morning after the battle ; Lieutenant Read, who distin- 
guished himself at the capture of New Orleans, and who 
was attached to the Weehawken when she laid her bones 
upon the same level as the Keokuk ; Dr. Hamilton, who 
had just chased Captain Seliimes 'round the world in the 
flying squadron of Admiral Wilkes ; and several others, 
whose experiences had been very various and deejDly 
interesting. Forrest died of yellow fever in the West 
Indies ; Read was drowned, with Admiral Bell, of the 
Asiatic squadron, by the swamping of a boat in China. 
Others of my old shipmates have passed through various 
vicissitudes. 

It has been said that the life of an3' man, if truly 
written, would make an interesting book. There must 
be mau}^ exceptions to this rule ; but I am sure there 
were at least half-a-dozen of my brother officers of the 
Lehigh whose lives would be far more interesting than 
this paper, in which I have essayed to sketch only the 
brief outlines of the history of the ship in which we 
served together. 

About once a week we were visited by a supply 
steamer, which brought mails from the North. Fre- 
quently copies of the Charleston Courier were received 
by our advanced pickets from the advanced pickets 
of the Confederates, in exchange for the newspapers of 
New York. The Courier always brought recollections 
of Lowell ''in the days of auld lang syne"; for it 
contained all the letters of the best Confederate army 
correspondent, F. G. Fontaine, " Personne," who first 
practised his gift in literary composition in the Lowell 
High School. It also contained Richard Yeadon's famous 
advertisement, which no Lowell man could read without 
laughter, as follows : — 



CRUISE OF THE MONITOR LEHIGH. 73 



TEN THOUSAND DOLLAKS REWARD! 

($10,000.) 

President Davis having proclaimed Benjamin F. Butler, of 
Massacliusetts, to be a Felon, deserving of capital punishment, for the 
deliberate murder of William B. Mumfokd, a citizen of the Confeder- 
ate States, at New Orleans, and having ordered that the said Benjamin 
F. Butler, for that and other outrages and atrocities, be considered 
and treated as an Outlaav (.ual (Jommon Enemy of Mankind, and 
that, in the event of his capture the officer in command of the capturing 
force do cause him to be immediately executed by hanging, the 
undersigned hereby offers a reward of Ten Thousand ($10,000) Dol- 
lars for the capture of the said Benjamin F. Butler, and his delivery, 
DEAD OR ALIVE, to any proper Confederate Authority. 

RICHARD YEADON. 

Chakleston, S. C, January l, 18C3. 

The Lehigh is now at Brandon, Va., with other iron 
clads, ready to do her part in any future struggles, 
foreign or domestic. 

" There are sailors to-day who would die at their guns, 
As the tars of the Cumberland died, 
Or with Soniers sail tlirougli the jaws of deatli, 
On Tripoli's fatal tide." 

At present their duties are irksome and monotonous 
enough. But long may it be before this wearisome 
monotony is again relieved by the blood}^ work of war. 
God grant that the thunder of our iron-clads may never 
be heard again, save in firing salutes to the starry flag, 
the honor of which they have so well sustained. 



«r 



F. Sketch of the Life of Edward St. Loe Liver- 
more, hy C. L. A. Read JVovernher 12, 1879. 



Edward St. Loe Livermore, the subject of this 
sketch, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, April 
5, 1762. He was the son of Samuel Livermore, a former 
chief justice of New Hampshire, and his wife, Jane, the 
daughter of the Rev. Arthur Browne, and was of the 
sixth generation in hneal descent from John Livermore, 
who emigrated to America in the bark "Frances," which 
sailed from Ipswich, Enoland, during the year 1634. 

John Livermore settled first in Watertown, Massa- 
chusetts, where he lived until 1665, when he removed to 
Wethersfield, Connecticut. From Wethersfield he went 
to New Haven, where his name appears in the town 
records as one of the signers of the fundamental agree- 
ment of the Colony of New Haven. Li 1670 he returned 
to Watertown, where, after having filled many offices of 
tru.st, he died in 1685. His wife, Grace, died and was 
buried, in 1686, at Chelmsford, where visitors to the old 
rural graveyard may still see an ancient, moss-cov- 
ered stoneip " erected to her memory by her dutiful 
children." 

Samuel Livermore, the great-grandson of John 



Note.— The writer of this sketch is indebted for many dat^s and facts to Bond's 
"History of Watertown," " Tlie Collections of the Historical Society of New Hanip- 
sliire." Sprajiue's "American ;\Iinislers," Hildretli's "History of the United States," 
and other publications ; hut it has not been considered necessary, in so sliort a paper, to 
indicate in eacli case the source from whicli the information was derived. 



CO 



fi 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF EDWAKI) ^T. LOE LIVEIOIORE. 



75 



Liverinore, inherited from his uncle, Nathaniel, the 
homestead in Watertown, now known as the " Lyman 
Farm " in Waltham. His wife was a daughter of 
Deacon Brown, of Boston. He was " much trusted in 
municipal and church affairs," and died at the age of 
seventy-one years, in 1773, leaving four sons, all of 
whom became distinguished men. 

Samuel Livermore was born in 1732. At the age 
of twenty he was graduated at Nassau Hall in New Jersey, 
and afterwards read law with Judge Trowbridge, at 
Beverly, Massachusetts. Soon after being admitted to 
the bar he settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where 
in 1759, he married Jane, the daughter of the Rev. 
Arthur Browne. 

Arthur Browne was the first Episcopal minister 
settled in New Hampshire. He was born in 1609, in 
Drogheda, Ireland, and was a son of the Rev. John 
Browne, archdeacon of Elphin, a descendant of the 
Scottish family of Brownes of Coulstone. He was edu- 
cated for the ministry at Trinity College, Dublin, and 
was ordained by the Bishop of London. In 1729, under 
the auspices of the " British Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," he was sent as mission- 
ary to Providence, Rhode Island. On his way thither 
he landed at Newport, where he remained about a year 
in charge of Trinity Church. He then went to Provi- 
dence, where he was settled for several years as rector 
of King's — now St. John's — Church. In 1737 he was 
called to St. John's Church of Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, of which he remained rector until a short time 
before his death, which occurred at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1773, while he was on a visit to his daughter, 
the wife of the Rev. Win wood Sargent. He was a man 
of great learning, and of a genial and benevolent dispo- 



76 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

sition. Upon one occasion, as he was dining at the 
house of Governor Wentworth, where he was a frequent 
and welcome guest, he was ordered by the governor to 
perform the ceremony by which the maid-servant, Patty, 
became the governor's wife, Lady Wentworth — an inci- 
dent which has since been celebrated in verse b}^ Long- 
fellow. The silver tankard which the governor took 
from the table at the conclusion of the ceremony, and 
gave to Arthur Browne, is still in the possession of his 
descendants. 

Samuel Liverraore soon became a successful lawyer, 
and was appointed attorne^^-general for the province, 
and king's advocate in the courts of admiralty. In 1765 
he removed to Londonderry, New Hampshire, and in 
this town was born his son Arthur, who became a justice 
of the Supreme Court, chief justice of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas of New Hampshire, and member of Congress. 
About the year 1765 Samuel Livermore began the settle- 
ment of Holderness, in Grafton County. Of this place 
he was one of the original grantees, and he eventually 
became by purchase the owner of about one half of the 
township. There, on the banks of the Pemigewasset 
River, in 1769, he fixed his permanent residence, and 
lived in almost feudal state until his death. It is said 
that " he possessed but little less than absolute power 
over the inhabitants, his superiority of character adding 
to the influence he could naturally command from the 
extent of his possessions." The huge house which he 
l)uilt there is still known as the " Old Livermore Man- 
sion," and is now used for the Episcopal Seminary for 
the diocese of New Hampshire. After the breaking out 
of the war of the Revolution, he was made State's attor- 
ney-general, and was several times a delegate to the Con- 
tinental Congress. In 1782 he was appointed chief 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF EDWARD ST. LOE LlVEIOIOItE. 



justice of the State. He ^vas a member of the convoca- 
tion for the adoption of the I'ederal Constitution, under 
which he was a representative in the first Congress, and, 
later, a senator for nine years. He was for several years 
president ^ro tempore of the United States Senate. In 
1803 he died, and was buried at Holderness, in the 
shadow of the church which he built, and which he had 
for many years supported. He and his wife were noted 
for their loving charities. 

Edward St. Loe Livermore received his early educa- 
tion at Londonderry and Holderness, where his father's 
chaplain, the Rev. Robert Fowle, was his tutor. He 
studied law at Newburyport in the office of that distin- 
guished jurist, Chief Justice Parsons. Upon being ad- 
mitted to the bar he began the practice of law at 
Concord, New Hampshire, where he soon attained to a 
high position in his profession. Here, while still very 
young, he married his first wife, Mehitable, the daughter 
of Robert Harris, Esq. She died at the age of twenty- 
eight years, in 1703, leaving five children, all of whom 
are now dead. She was a highly educated, refined, and 
agreeable woman. 

Judii'e Livermore's eldest son bv his first marriao:e, 
Samuel, was educated at Harvard College. He was a 
friend of Captain Lawrence of the " Chesapeake," under 
whom he served as a volunteer chaplain in the celebrated 
sea-fight with the British frigate " Shannon," in which 
he was wounded and taken prisoner. He afterwards 
practised law in New Orleans, where he amassed a con- 
siderable fortune. He was the author of several treatises 
upon different branches of the law, which are still re- 
ferred to as authorities. At his death he left to Harvard 
College his library of some thousand volumes, which was 
then the richest in America in works relating to the civil 



78 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 



law. His sister, Harriet, was widely known and i^e.spect- 
ed as a traveller in the Holy Land. 

Soon after the death of his first wife, Mr. Livermore 
removed to Portsmouth, where, in a short time, he be- 
came distinguished in professional and political life. He 
was appointed by President Washington, United States 
district attorney, an office which he held until 1798, 
when he was made justice of the Supreme Court of New 
Hampshire. In 1799 he married Sarah Crease, the 
daugliter of William Stackpole, a distinguished merchant 
of Boston. She has been well described as '' a woman of 
sweet and amiable temper, with an entire absence from 
her character of env}', hatred, and uncharitableness." 
Her consistently Christian life and deportment warmly 
attached to her all who knew her or came within the 
sphere of her gentle, winning influence. Well might be 
said of her, 

" None knew thee but to love thee, 
None named thee but to praise." 

She survived her husband many years, and died at Low- 
ell, October 5, 1859. 

In politics. Judge Livermore was a zealous Federal- 
ist, and took an active part in public affairs ; but although 
he lived at a period when party feeling was intenselj' 
bitter, his gentlemanly and courteous ben ring, and the 
urbanity of his manners gave him much personal influ- 
ence even with his political opponents. After a faithful 
discharge for a few years of his duties as judge, he re- 
signed Ills position upon the bench and resumed the 
practice of his profession. 

In 18U2 he took up his residence m Newburyport, 
where he soon became a leading citizen and was chosen 
to represent the town in the General Court of the State. 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF EDWARD ST. LOE LIVE-RMORE. 79 



" His course there was so wise and judicious that he was 
chosen to represent the North Essex District, then so 
called, in Congress." On the 22nd of December, 1807, 
Congress, upon recommendation of President Jefferson, 
passed the famous Embargo Act, which was intended 
" to countervail Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees, 
and the British orders in council." Judge Livermore 
took an active part in the debates of the House upon the 
passage of this act, and, later, used all his endeavors to 
have it repealed. Upon this subject he made in particu- 
lar one very forcible and eloquent speech, which won 
for him many laurels. 

In 1811, after having served for three terms in 
Congress, he declined a re-election, and soon after re- 
moved from Newburyport to Boston, where he lived for 
some years a quiet life, taking no active part in public 
affairs. In 1813, at the request of the town authorities 
of Boston, he delivered the annual oration upon the 
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This 
oration was delivered at the height of the war of 1812, 
and about a month after the sanguinary combat off 
Boston Light between the " Chesapeake " and " Shannon " 
frigates, in which his son Samuel was engaged. The 
details of this combat being as yet unknown in Boston, 
there was naturally among the townspeople a feeling of 
great anxiety to learn the fate of their friends and 
relatives on board the " Chesapeake," and this feeling 
was probably not unmixed with bitterness toward those 
who had involved the country in what many believed a 
causeless war. It was, therefore, with the apparent 
sympathy of his hearers that Judge Livermore criticised 
most severely the action of the American government 
which led to the war — which he believed unnecessary, 
and which had brought so much misery and suffering 



80 OLD residents' historical association. 



upon the whole country, but especially upon the New 
England States — while he paid a deserved tribute of 
praise to the gallantry and patriotism of the navy whose 
exploits reflected so much lustre upon the American 
arms. 

Soon after the close of the war of 1812, Judge 
Livermore caught the so-called " Western fever," and 
took his large family to Zanesville, Ohio, which was, at 
that time, looked upon as the " far West," with the in- 
tention of settling there. The comforts of civilization 
had not yet spread through that part of the new world. 
It was before the days of railways, and the long and 
tedious journey from the East had to be performed in 
carriages suited to the rough roads of the country. 
Judge Livermore and his family could not bring them- 
selves to submit to the many deprivations and hardships 
necessarily attending a residence in the West at that 
time, and they therefore soon returned to Boston. 

About 1816 Judge Livermore, desirous of passing 
the rest of his days removed from the bustle of city and 
political life, bought, far out in the country, in the town 
of Tewksbury, a quiet home farm of about two hundred 
acres, called the " Gedney Estate." The mansion house 
upon this estate was beautifully situated at the conflu- 
ence of the Merrimack and Concord Rivers. Standing 
at an elevation of from forty to fifty feet above the 
water, it commanded a distant and lovely view of both 
the streams. Back of the house, upon the opposite side 
of the Merrimack, rose Dracut Heights, looming up as if 
to shield the spot from the north-wind. The house itself 
was a large, old, rambling building, and the tradition is 
that all its beams and woodwork were prepared in Eng- 
land, and brought to this country for a Mr. Brown, who 
bought the estate about the middle of the last century. 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF EI>WA11D ST. LOE LIVERMORE. 81 



However this might be, it was certainly a h)vely old 
mansion, a fit residence for its new owners, who brought 
to it hio'h culture and breeding. Some of the older 
residents of the goodly city which has since sprung up 
about it may still remember the house as it then stood, 
with the lawn in front bordered on one side by a long 
avenue of Lombardy poplars — and may also remember 
the hospitality which made it so well known in the 
country about. 

For many years Judge Livermore had associated 
with men prominent in letters and in politics, in this and 
other countries, and had taken an active part in the 
political transactions of the times, so that, being endowed 
with a comprehensive memory, he had at his command a 
large fund of anecdotes, and his conversation was agree- 
able and instructive to all with whom he came in con- 
tact. When he bought the Gedney estate in Tewksbury, 
he called it " Belvidere" — a most appropriate name for so 
beautiful a place. Until 1826 the nearest place of public 
worship was about two miles from " Belvidere," at Paw- 
tucket Falls, where the Rev. Mr. Sears, a Presbyterian 
minister, preached for many years, and here the Liver- 
more family became constant attendants. 

When the Merrimack Manufacturing Company was 
organized, a church was built for the benefit of Kirk 
Boott, his family, and other Episcopalians connected with 
the manufacturing establishment. At the iirst church 
meeting of the new parish, a pew was kindly placed at 
the disposal of Judge Livermore. He, with his family, 
continued to occupy this pew until his death, and it is 
still occupied by his eldest daughter, the only member of 
the family who now lives in Lowell. The first clergyman 
installed in this church was the Rev. Theodore Edson, 
the* beloved pastor who still fulfils his duties with un- 



82 



OLD residents' historical associatk 



013 764 476 9 



wearied zeal, not unmindful of tlie exhortation of St. 
Paul to " rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep 
with them that weep." 

Judge Livermore lived to see a large and flourishing 
city grow up around the lonely spot he had selected for 
a quiet home, and to gather round liis fireside neighbors 
who would have graced society in any city in the world. 
He died at " Belvidere " on the 15th of September, 1832, 
at the age of seventy years, and was Imried in the old 
Granary Burying Ground in Boston. He left seven 
children by his second marriage, four of whom are still 
livino", viz : Elizabeth Browne Livermore, who lives at 
Lowell and is unmarried ; Caroline, the wife of Hon. 
J. G. Abbott, of Boston ; Sarah Stackpole, wife of John 
Tatterson, Esq., of Southbridge, Mass. ; and Mary Jane, 
wife of Hon. Daniel Saunders, of Lawrence. 

Judge Livermore, although of a quick and hot 
temper, was a just, hospitable, upright man, with 

" a tear for pity, and a liand 
Open as day for melting charity." 

The poor man never turned from his door empt3^-handed, 
or the afflicted without sympathy. He died in the sure 
hope of the resurrection of the dead and a life to come. 
" The memory of the just lives with the just." 

Boston, September 14, 1879. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 764 476 9 # 



